From: Witham,Larry
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:33 AM
To: shannon@usaai.org
Subject: Trip 30151 Curacao

Hi Shannon,

I hope you receive many of this type of email.

I just wanted to say "Thank You" to you and the staff at USAAI for the wonderful opportunity and experience Cori and I were able to have through USAAI. As Cori put it on her Facebook account, "Best trip, ever!". A great group of kids, great parents, and last but not least, great coaches!

Teresa and Angie are, quite simply, class acts! They did a wonderful job, both on and off the field, constructing a team out of a bunch of all-stars that they had never seen play together or interact together in any way. And, boy, did they come together! It was really fun to watch! They allowed me to help by keeping book, and I'm very appreciative of their willingness to allow me to do so. Being a HS coach myself, I'm not used to sitting in the stands, and being close to the action without calling any shots was wonderful! I would have no hesitation at all having Cori play for Teresa and/or Angie again! They are both tremendous ambassadors for USAAI, for the game, and for the USA! And I'm sure Cori would echo those same feelings, but in the words of a 17 year old! J

Once again, on behalf of Cori and I, my heartfelt thank you to all that made this possible! We both look forward to doing this again sometime soon!

Sincerely,

Larry Witham

The USAAI softball team coach ed by Todd Buckingham's team played in the final of the International Challenge against the Australian Schoolgirls team and lost in that final. A silver medal was a great effort. Overall the tour is going great...coaches, players and parents are all having a good time...I am typing this from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast. The group is enjoying their time Down Under!

Darren Minns
Delegation Manager

today our girls lost their final game 3-6 to Los Comanches (France) that surprisingly qualified for the finals. The French were the better team that day, we made to many errors. After a 6-0 lead for the French our girls came into the game too late and could only score two runs in 2 hours. Despite of the loss the girls enjoyed their first international tournament very much and even made a lot of friends (especially Dutch boys) - I don't know why! Hehe!

Tomorrow we continue to Pisa in the morning, will spend some time at the pool and have a PIZZA baking class at night.

But here is a update:: A team in Rome found out our girls were in Rome, They offered Coach Dale a game. The girls played at the Olympic center here in Rome. The USA team lost in the bottom of the 7th 7 to 6. After the game both teams met for pictures and the USA team found out that 3 of the players on the It. team were on the It. Nat.team. One player was 45 years old and had played in two Olympics. The age range for the It. team was 15 to 45!! All the girls played well!! For just arriving and all the site seeing (walking at least 3 miles) they did great!!